Telangana to vote on Friday

The stage is set for Telangana to decide who will rule it for the next five years. There are 2.8 crore voters in the state. In 2014, only 68.5 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise. The previous elections saw a significant 30 percent not taking part in the electoral process. This time, the Election Commission and political parties have been campaigning for a better turn out at the polling stations.

The EC is encouraging nearly 2.5 lakh government staff to make use of the postal ballot. About 10,000 service personnel (defence and central forces) hailing from Telangana have also been encouraged to make use of the postal ballot facility. Special arrangements have been made for the nearly 4.58 lakh persons with disabilities (PwD) to reach polling booths and get preference in the queues. Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar directed heads of IT companies to provide transportation and permission to their techies to cast their votes. There are 40,56,524 voters in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits.

The campaign for the December 7 Telangana Assembly elections has come to an end sharp at 5 pm on Wednesday (December 5).

People to judge K Chandrasekhar Rao’s performance

Technically, this is the first election for Telangana, since it was created as India’s 29th state through the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act on June 2, 2014. The first election in May 2014 was conducted in the undivided Andhra Pradesh but, the Assemblies were formed separately. In the 2014 election, K Chandrasekhar Rao of TRS Party was a hero, who had achieved the long cherished demand of the people for a separate state.

People initially expected that KCR, who crusaded the statehood movement and Congress, which granted the wish, would fight the election together. But, KCR sprang a surprise on all by choosing to go alone. Despite the ‘gratitude and sympathy wave’, KCR’s TRS got a very thin majority of 63 in the 119-member Assembly.

The TRS is seeking a second term. KCR has been asking the people to judge his government’s performance in terms of development and welfare. The TRS is confident that the nearly one crore people, who get direct benefits through the welfare schemes such as Arogyasri (free healthcare), social security pensions, input subsidy for farmers (Rytu Bandhu), artisans, persons with disabilities and the like, would show their faith in his care for them. The TRS believes that the sentiment is still alive and the performance of the KCR government would add to it.

While there are just four days remaining before the people of Telangana decide who should rule them for the next five years, money and liquor are flowing freer than water in the state. Hell-bent on ‘capturing’ the power for five years, candidates, irrespective of the political parties they belong to, are handing out cash for votes.

The opposition has put in a lot of effort to establish its charge that KCR is an autocrat running a family show, ruining the state. That KCR was running the administration from his house by not showing up at the state secretariat was one of the factors they have highlighted. The People’s Front, for which Congress president Rahul Gandhi and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu campaigned vigorously, charged KCR with shattering the dreams of youths, farmers, women and other sections. They also accused KCR of failing to create jobs for the youth and filling the vacancies in the government.

BJP stalwarts Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, Sushma Swaraj (who played key role in the passage of the Telangana Bill in Lok Sabha) and several others also campaigned vigorously in the state.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has declared that showing profit to farmers and creating jobs to youths would be the two immediate priorities for the People’s Front, if voted to power on December 7 Telangana elections.

The opposition parties were together in accusing KCR of pushing a surplus economy state into a debt trap. Telangana was formed with a Rs 16,000 crore surplus. The KCR government had borrowed Rs 2.25 lakh crore for various purposes, including execution of major irrigation projects.